Step 5: Dress the rice ball

A relatively easy and mess-free way to make basic filled rice balls (onigiri). I believe that traditional onigiri are made in triangular or ball shapes and are formed in the palms of your hands, then covered with a strip of nori. You can also find cute little molds to make bunny or cat shapes to make these tasty treats even more appealing to children of all ages. This technique uses a sheet of plastic wrap to help you form the rice balls without getting your hands too messy.

Update: I've received a lot of good comments about the traditional method of wetting your hands before working with the rice to keep it from sticking to your hands. The plastic wrap makes it easy for beginners to form the balls; once you're comfortable with that, you should definitely try the wet hands method for a more natural way of forming the rice balls.

Step 1: Lay out the ingredients

First you must make sticky rice. Use short-grained sushi rice and cook according to the directions. I like to add about 1/4 cup more water per cup of rice to make it stickier.

Place a couple tablespoons of the cooked rice in the center of the plastic wrap.

Place your desired fillings on top of the rice. In this example, I used common "Philly" roll ingredients: smoked salmon, cream cheese, and chopped chives (instead of scallions).

Step 2: Top with more rice

Add about another tablespoon of rice on top of your fillings. Don't worry if it doesn't completely cover the fillings. The rice from the bottom will come up to cover the sides when you form the rice ball.

It doesn't really matter how much rice you use. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Step 3: Form the rice ball

Gather up the plastic wrap and gently twist the top tight with one hand while shaping the ball in the palm of your other hand.

Step 4: Unwrap the rice ball

Open up the plastic wrap. Presto! Easy rice ball.

Step 5: Dress the rice ball

Add whatever toppings you like. In this example, I added salmon furikake and toasted sesame seeds. Furikake is an all-purpose seasoning blend of salt, sesame seeds, seaweed, and other spices. Most asian food stores will have a variety of furikake available. You could also wrap the ball with a strip of nori.

I'm sure you could. You might need to add a little extra water (start w/ +1 Tbsp) to make the rice sticky, or mix in a bit of rice vinegar to the cooked rice and fan it. I recently made sushi rolls using black rice--that was delicious and I believe it packed more nutrition than white rice.

That's a good point. I used the plastic wrap for convenience because my hands get rather messy when working with the rice. I'll have to find out what tricks sushi chefs use when shaping rice for nigiri and use that for these balls.

Wet hands, definitely. I always make my sticky rice with sweetened rice vinegar (you can buy sushi vinegar or you can use rice vinegar and add sugar), so I use cold water with a bit of my sushi vinegar in for flavoring instead of salt, since any toppings I add are likely to be salty anyway.

Ice cold salted water. If you dip your hands in that before each ball it seasons the ball perfectly and makes the rice not stick to your hands at all. I at first thought it was Japanese nonsense but I couldn't do without this technique now.

Do you think fine mesh (like a very fine tulle or something like that) might be a suitably green alternative to plastic wrap? That way you can wash and reuse it - maybe even use it as a liner on a sushi rolling mat? Nylon is pretty safe stuff from what I understand and it has worked for reusable produce bags elsewhere on instructables.

If you are really into making onigiri, you can usually find onigiri forms at your local Asian or International grocery. If you don't have one, these websites offer supplies for making onigiri that is reusable.http://www.ichibankanusa.com/http://shop.iloveobento.com/http://www.j-box.com or Search for J-Box Amazon and Ebay also sell reusable Obento Supplies You can also use ice cream molds

assuming I work with fresh herbs and no real perishables (I'm thinking chives, garlic, basil and rosemary) how long do you think these will keep without refridgeration. Like if I make a few to take to work with me.

I love rice so while watching an anime I though what's all the fuss about rice balls... rice will always be rice... well, I was wrong! Somehow I made this in less than 20 min at 2 am... PS: Being Greek I don't really like fish anywhere near my rice but I'm willing to try it soon... for now I just use salt, feta cheese and sweet paprika. :)

I've convinced my mom to let me try making riceballs before the summer's out. She doesn't exactly approve of my 'obsession' as she called it, but if it gets me to learn how to make something other than macaroni and sandwiches...

This is kind of a strange question.. but I am trying to figure out how Japanese people eat in common practice.. because I love their food so much. What I mean is, how would you eat these? would you have them with your dinner? Have some for lunch with something else? would you have these as a main course or an appetizer?

It's a finger food, not really a lunch per se nor a snack. Instead of eating a full lunch you would have like generally 3 of these packed up. Though I think they make them a little bigger. Anywho they just eat them as is, like finger food. Mostly this is used as a pick me up type food, but they can be used as a lunch, if you eat all three. But the Japanese way is to grab it and take a bite out of it. Nothing really special on how to eat it.

They look cute and appetizing. I once tried to make my own onigiri after eating it at a restaurant, but I failed. This would be a neat lunch box idea. I have some furikake that needs to be eaten. I can't wait to try this over the weekend. Thanks.

Awesome Idea! I have just started getting into Bento and have 100 things I want to try but this was one thing I had no idea how to make into a good shape without a plastic mold (have enough rubbish in my kitchen without annother gadget lol) I love these rice balls and now can make my own without lots of mess!